


King Sans' Regret - A Simple Change In The Story

by UnseenReader



Series: Storyfell - A Simple Shift [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Storyshift (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underfell (Undertale), F/F, F/M, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Lil' bit of angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-01-13 08:18:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21241037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnseenReader/pseuds/UnseenReader
Summary: Storyfell, but let's see how one change affects the story.If you didn't read the tags, this is Frans with a bit of Papara on top.





	1. A human?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Venelona](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Venelona).

> Originally story idea by Venelona (plus Sans' design): https://venelona.tumblr.com/post/188391925550/storyfell-thingie-i-got-a-little-story-for?is_highlighted_post=1

A skeleton was walking through a field of golden flowers currently tending to them. Suddenly, there was a large thud, like something fell down, coming from near the barrier. Weird considering he had left nothing near the barrier. He went to check it out…

In front of the barrier lay an unconscious human. The eighth human, right here in front of him. He summoned a sharp, red, bone to kill them… but he couldn’t? He hesitated. He couldn’t bring himself to attack them. They looked innocent. They **were **innocent. What did they do to deserve this? Come to think about it, what did the previous six do to justify killing them? Just because they were human? They were just children. He had been known for being wise in critical times (a long time ago, mind you), and this was one of those times.

He took the human to a room in his home and lay them on a bed to rest. There he continued to think. Why was it kill or be killed? All that has brought is suffering, and it also caused Prince Papyrus, his brother, to leave. He could remember it. Papyrus’ glare of disappointment and anger. After the proclamation, Papyrus came to him to talk. Papyrus scolded him for thinking that this kill or be killed rule would solve anything. After a while, Sans snapped and retaliated with two sharp bones, surprising Papyrus and scarring him on his left eye. Papyrus didn’t attack. He stood there shocked. Sans had just realized what happened. ‘wait, pap-’

He heard shifting. The human had woken up and was frightened by the sight of him. To be honest, who wouldn’t be? The human’s expression slowly turned from one of fright and surprise to one of concern. Why would that be unless…

The red liquid (tears) poured down from his eye sockets. He hated recalling that memory. It made him look weak. The human shifted closer to comfort him. He didn’t do anything. He just stayed there, crying. Why was this human comforting a scary skeleton monster that could kill them at any second? Did he look that weak? Or maybe it didn’t matter what he looked like. He didn’t care either way…

* * *

The human was pretty confused when she woke up. Where was she, and how did she get here? More importantly, who was this skeleton that had- wait, what? S-k-e-l-e-t-o-n. She shifted away. The skeleton noticed and faced her. Was he… crying? He turned away as the tears (?) continued to drip down his face (skull). Why was he crying? (How do skeletons even cry?) She moved closer to comfort him, despite common sense telling her not to go closer. He didn’t respond. She gathered up courage and asked, ‘What’s wrong?’ He didn’t answer. Again. Still no answer.

Eventually, he stopped crying. Silence. No one was willing to talk. After a while, he spoke up… ‘hey, uh... human, my name’s sans... sans the skeleton. and you?’

‘Frisk. My name is Frisk.’

‘you could go into the garden if you want. i’ll get some food for you to eat. when you leave the room, go right to the entrance, then go down the staircase.’

With that, he left the room to go to the kitchen.

* * *

He stopped by the entrance… He couldn’t let her leave. She’d die if Toriel found her. He locked the door. If Toriel came by, he would at least have enough time to hide Frisk. He left to go cook some spaghetti. He found one of Papyrus’ old cookbooks and found a recipe for spaghetti. He couldn’t cook as well as Papyrus did, but it would suffice for now.

* * *

She went down into the garden. It was beautiful. A patch of golden flowers sat in the middle well-tended to. She bent down to admire them when she heard a voice among them.

‘Come on Boogie, you can do this. You only need one.’

‘Hello? Who’s there?’

A flower (?) turned towards Frisk. ‘A human, here? ALIVE?!’

Frisk was confused. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘frisk, your food’s ready!’

The flower dug back into the ground as Frisk turned to meet Sans.

‘you done admiring those flowers? the spaghetti’s ready’

* * *

Both were silent while they ate the spaghetti. Sans didn’t seem to want to start a conversation. Frisk spoke. ‘I met a talking golden flower in the garden. They seemed to be confused about the fact that I was here alive.’

‘that flower doesn’t know what he’s talking about, i’ve adopted humans before…’

‘Really? I’d like to meet them.’

‘that was a long time ago. they… they aren’t with us anymore.’

‘Oh… I’m sorry.’

‘it’s alright. i got over that a long time ago.’

* * *

Frisk continued to explore the house after Sans had gone out and came across his room. There was a joke book inside a quantum physics book which was inside a joke book… Frisk read the top book which happened to be a joke book.

Q: Why didn’t the skeleton go to the dance?

A: Because he had nobody to go with.

Q: Why didn’t the skeleton want to play?

A: Cause he was dead serious.

She turned the page.

Q: Why did the butcher kill his favorite goat?

A: Cause he goat to do it to earn some money.

That… was a bit disturbing. She closed the book. She picked up a quantum physics book and lay on the bed.

This was a bit hard to understand at first, but eventually, she started to understand. It was basic physics at first. Frisk knew a little already. Time went by and eventually…

* * *

Sans had just met with Toriel to ask about how the daily patrol had gone. He so wanted to just get rid of that ‘kill or be killed’ shit but he knew it wouldn’t make sense to suddenly get rid of it without a good reason. He was tired. He went into his room to sleep, not noticing the fact that Frisk was in his bed, and quickly fell asleep.

* * *

Frisk woke up. Sans was asleep, right beside her in the bed… wait… what? She sat up and shifted back to the wall, her face red. He remained asleep. Guess he’s a deep sleeper. She slowly moved over him to get off the bed, but mid-way through he woke up and turned to face her. Surprised, he tumbled off the bed, Frisk caught with him in the blankets, and both landed on the floor, Sans top of Frisk. Almost kissing (if only skeletons had lips). Frisk’s face was red as a tomato. Sans’ expression changed from one of shock to one of laughter. He smirked. He had been so bored being king ever since Papyrus left.

‘that was surprising… to say the least. if you wanted to leave without waking me up, you should’ve put some more backbone into it.’

* * *

Is this guy serious? We’re in such an embarrassing position and you can’t even afford to try to move, and on top of it, he makes a pun?

Frisk was annoyed, yet couldn’t help but chuckle.

‘you actually liked that one.’

‘What, no!’ He got off Frisk.

‘seems like you fell asleep reading one of my old quantum physics books. i could lend you the book if you want.’ He said looking at the book on his bed.

‘No thanks.’ The still very red-faced Frisk responded. ‘I’m fine’

‘alright. i’ll prepare some food for dinner soon.’ He replied

Frisk quickly left the room before anything else could happen.

* * *

Sans chuckled to himself. Things had finally gotten exciting, well maybe not… but at least he wasn’t going to be as bored. Now, what should we eat for dinner?


	2. Injustice against Justine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No need to kill

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would've posted yesterday, but had some difficulty with wifi.  
Also, have you guys ever tried Grammarly? It's amazing.  
I'm also too good at procrastinating.

“DO YOU THINK THAT YOU CAN SURVIVE IF YOU ONLY SHOW MERCY?!” The boy shifted and moved his foot on Frisk’s face. “DO YOU THINK WE WON’T FIGHT ALL BECAUSE **YOU** DON’T WANT TO?! HA! IN YOUR DREAMS! LOOK AT YOU! YOUR DEAR FRIEND GLORIA’S GONE, SO WHO’S GONNA SAVE YOU NOW?!”

“Cut it out.” A nearby voice said.

“AND WHO WOULD YOU BE?” They retorted while taking their foot off Frisk’s face.

“Justine. Here to serve Justice.” Frisk turned towards her.

“HEH! IN YOUR DREAMS. GET HER, BOYS!!!” His two underlings ran at her.

She kicked._ Whack._ The first one was instantly knocked out. The second one stopped and cowered in fear. She took a step forward.

They ran away. “HEY! GET BACK HERE!”

“Looks like no one’s here to help you. Are you just gonna run away?”

“UGH. YOU HAVEN’T HEARD THE LAST OF THIS! I PROMISE YOU THAT!” With that, he ran away.

“Hey Frisk, you okay?”

“Yeah, thanks to you”

…

“So Frisk, which is your favorite, Butterscotch or Cinnamon?”

“Hmm. I’m not really sure… Maybe-” Frisk was suddenly pushed aside by Justine, who was knocked on the head by a frying pan. And guess who was standing there… H I M. The same boy who was beating her up the other day.

“Frisk, run-” She was knocked out by a second hit.

“SO WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO NOW? RUN AWAY LIKE SHE TOLD YOU TO? LOOK, THERE’S NO ONE ELSE AROUND TO HELP YOU!”

Frisk stood there, speechless, looking at her unconscious friend’s body. Blood had soaked her hair, and a little stained her lips. “…”

“ALL RIGHT, THEN! IF YOU WANT TO GO WITH HER, I’LL HAPPILY OBLIGE YOU, **FRISK!**”

**FRISK** slowly moved back, before making a run for it. **FRISK** hated to admit it, but if she stayed there, they would catch her, and Justine’s sacrifice for **FRISK** would be in vain.

* * *

**“FRISK!!! WAKE UP!!!”**

She opened her eyes to see a worried Sans hovering above her. She sat up.

“are you okay? you were sweating and moving around a lot.”

“Just a bad dream.”

“what was it about?”

“Don’t worry. It’s nothing to worry about.”

“i got you some old clothes to wear, since all you have is what is currently on your back.” With that he left.

She stood up to look at the clothes he got her. They looked familiar… Justine? “Sans!”

“yeah?” he said as he re-entered the room.

“Did you ever know a human named Justine?”

“yes. she was the previous owner of those clothes… how did you know about her?”

“She was a good friend of mine…”

“oh… sorry. though that doesn’t explain why she would climb the mountain.”

“She didn’t.”

“what do you mean?”

“I remember it clearly, she was knocked out by a bunch of people and carried to Mt. Ebbot. I could have done something to stop them. I **should** have done something.”

“calm down”. He sat on the bed and motioned for Frisk to sit beside him. “Was that what the nightmare was about?”

“Yes.” She sat down beside him.

“sorry ‘bout that… frisk, i need to tell you something”

“What”

“a story”

* * *

“The Story of Humans and Monsters”

Long ago, two races ruled over the earth. Humans and Monsters. The monsters, led by our old leader, a boss monster named Motaj, attacked the humans.

“Boss monsters?”

“when monsters die, they turn to dust, and their soul, represented by a white, upside-down heart, shatters. however, when a boss monster, the most powerful type of monster, dies, their soul is able to persist for a few seconds after death.”

Anyway-

“Why would the monsters attack?”

Why did the monsters attack?  “i don’t know. besides, i wasn’t even alive during the war. i do know one thing though” That we monsters had everything to lose, while the humans had nothing to lose.

Eventually, after the death of many monsters, the humans won. The monsters were sealed underground by powerful wizards, who created a barrier that can only be broken by using seven-uh… seven…

“Seven what?”

Seven… seven human souls.

“Wh- but how?”

You see, unlike monster souls, human souls have the ability to persist after death… A monster (only a monster) can absorb a human’s soul. Humans can absorb monster souls to, but due to the fact that a monster soul shatters immediately after death, it is impossible (if not extremely difficult) to absorb the soul of a monster which is not a boss monster.

“Are you a boss monster?”

“no.” There are only 3 boss monsters alive at this point in time. They are all goat monsters. And no, Motaj is long dead. Anyway, with the power of 7 human souls, a monster can become a god and break the barrier. With total control over reality and time, they can do anything.

“How… m-many have-?”

6, there were 7 humans before you, 6 have died, though the first one is still alive.

“W- Was Justine?”

She was the first to die, though it was due to a misunderstanding. Some monsters had simply never seen her before, and due to the barrier, they tried to kill her. Prince Papyrus, my brother, protected her, but she… **she was m u r d e r e d in her sleep.**

* * *

“So… Am I allowed to see the rest of the underground?” Frisk asked

“**no**”

“But why?”

“…”

“i originally didn’t want to tell you but…” his voice trailed off.

“But what?”

“out there… it’s kill or be killed”

“Why would that be?”

“…”

“Sans?”

“because… it’s because of me”

“What… what do you mean”

“frisk.” He turned towards her. The regret in his eyes (?) was obvious

“isn’t it obvious? i’m their king. i made the proclamation, i told them ‘it’s kill or be killed’”

“…” She was silent. He was afraid of that.

“Why?”

“Justine died, but then alice came… she killed, a lot. i was in grief. i was stupid. i was lazy, slothful-”

“…It’s ok, Sans… you made a mistake, every-”

“what’s wrong with you?! i didn’t make a mistake! the monsters suffered under my rule. i was stupid, negligible, plain dumb-!”

“But you have a heart, or at least a conscience.”

“wha… what do you mean?” he finally calmed.

“Don’t you remember? I was unconscious at the barrier, wasn’t I? You did find me unconscious right?”

“yes… but what difference does that make?”

“You had the opportunity to kill me and take my soul.”

“…i know”

“But you didn’t.”

“…”

“frisk.”

“Yes?”

“may I ask a question?”

“Go on.”

“do you think that even the worst person can change? that anyone can be a good person if they just try?”

Frisk smiled. “Yes”

“do you… do you mean it?” Tears had started to form in his eyes.

“Yes, I do.”

She was suddenly caught in his embrace. “thank you. thank you very much.” The tears were pouring down his face in torrents.

“It’s alright. Please stop crying.” Frisk pleaded.

* * *

“So Sans…” Frisk said as they sat by the table, eating Prince Papyrus’ famed lasagna. “Why don’t you make me your royal advisor? I could come with you for meetings-”

“absolutely not”

“Come on. I want to go with you”

“a no’s a no”

“Either that or you pick your dirty sock for once”

“never”, he hissed.

“I see why Papyrus left you”

With that Sans looked down, defeated. “fine… i’ll pick my sock”

“You wouldn’t have to if you let me go with you.” Frisk knew what she was doing, and Sans knew it too.

“…n-… ugh. ok, you can go with me” _She’s gonna get herself killed._

“Yay”

“i’m leaving soon”

* * *

“you can still go back if you want.”

“Nah. I’m ok.”

“ugh” _Toriel’s gonna flip. Wait. Hehe._

“well, then, we’re gonna have a ton of work to do… a _skele_-ton”

She almost laughed but managed to stop herself and feigned annoyance. “Stop it”

“you’re gonna need more _backbone_ to resist these puns.”

A giggle escaped her.

“after all, this is your _pun_ishment for blackmailing me, or so i would say if these puns weren’t _sans_ational.”

She couldn’t hold it in anymore. She laughed.

There was a clanking of armor in the distance.

“Who was-” Toriel paused, surprised. “A… human… beside you… and you haven’t killed them.”

“oh come on. you’ve _goat _one of your own”

“Sans, while I may secretly appreciate your puns… this isn’t the time.” She summoned her flaming staff. “That human needs to die.” Frisk hid behind Sans.

“Toriel, before we continue. Do you honestly think it’s just that you have the right to keep Chara alive, yet Frisk here has to die?” Sans’ eye sockets had become blank

“I-I um…”

“also i thought over this for a while, and… i’m getting rid of that killed or be killed shit” _ouch_ He forgot. Frisk didn’t like swearing. _did she have to kick me though? her shoes hurt my legs._

“You don’t mean it…” Toriel, of course, had mixed feelings. On one hand, it wouldn’t make sense to get rid of that law just like that, and the last human soul they needed was right here, inside that human, but if it worked, she would be ensured of her children’s safety.

“i mean it. you’ll make the announcement tomorrow”

The only thing keeping Toriel from getting angry and attacking were her children, Chara and Asriel. She had loved them deeply even before the kill or be killed proclamation happened. But there was one problem.** Sans.**

“Sans, while I have no problem with this change, don’t you realize that no one will listen if you don’t get your lazy butt of that throne and start listening to the people’s needs.”

Sans grinned. “and that’s exactly what i’m doing.”

“…Sans… t-thank you. I am no longer obliged to maltreat my children. But Sans… you do know that some will not accept this. Sure, the Solar Warriors branch of the Royal Guard may be relieved… a little, but some won’t accept it.”

“then we will punish them.” Sans turned to Frisk. “let’s go”

“Where?” Both Frisk and Toriel inquired as Sans took Frisk’s hand.

“somewhere”

Frisk blinked… and when she opened her eyes, they were standing some distance from away of a tall gate in the middle of a snowy forest. And there was another human there. And it was cold. Very cold. “here.” Sans said, holding out the red jacket he wore under his royal armor.

* * *

“Hey, uh… guy behind the gate, did you somehow invite the King here? Along with a human?”

“I DON’T REMEMBER DOING THAT. WHY DO YOU ASK?”

“Because they’re right here”

“THE KING? WITH A HUMAN?!?!”

“Yeah, they’re approaching.”

“HIDE, SO THE KING DOESN’T-”

“too late”

“GO AWAY, SANS! I’M NOT TALKING TO YOU!”

The voice went silent.

“well, i guess deserve that since it is my fault it’s killed or be killed. well, it was ‘till just now”

“…W- WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?”

“As of a minute ago, it’s no longer kill or be killed. Well, officially starting tomorrow after the proclamation.”

“…”

The gate / giant door slowly started to open. A taller skeleton came out. Sans was immediately on his brother, hugging him.

“…HUMAN. I HAVE ONE QUESTION. HAS SANS FINALLY PICKED UP HIS SOCK?!”

Frisk giggled. “No.”

“SEE! THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS, I LEFT SANS!”

“noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. please don’t go again.”

“UGH. FINE. I’LL COME BACK. ANYWAY…” He turned to the humans “ANYWAY, WHAT ARE YOUR NAMES, LITTLE ONES?”

“Chara, and it’s nice to see that I’ve made a _skele_ton of friends.”

“Frisk, it’s nice to finally meet you, Prince Papyrus”

“YES. IT IS NICE TO MEET YOU TOO… BUT TELL ME, FRISK, HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO CONVINCE HIM TO GET RID OF THAT RULE?”

“Oh no, I didn’t. It seems you leaving already caused him enough grief” Frisk said, looking at Sans, who was still tightly clinging to Papyrus.

“IT SEEMS YOU ARE RIGHT… IN ANY CASE, I GUESS WE SHOULD GET GOING. SANS.”

“ok”

In an instant, they were all in New Hope. Including Chara.

“IT SEEMS WE TOOK CHARA TOO BY MISTAKE…” But Sans was somehow already on his bed, asleep.

“It’s alright. I’ll just call my mom and tell her.”

“ALRIGHT, THEN… IF THIS HOME IS EXACTLY LIKE THE ONE IN THE RUINS, THEN…” Papyrus forced open the second door in the hallway. “THIS SHOULD BE MY ROOM! OH… CHARA, WHY DON’T YOU STAY WITH FRISK FOR TONIGHT?”  
“Alright, then”  
  


* * *

“So how long have you been living with the king?” Chara asked.

“Oh, not that long. Only a few days so far.”

“Then, which do you prefer? Papyrus or Sans?”

“I… I don’t know. They’re both kinda nice, you know, considering it’s ‘kill or be killed.’”

“*I much prefer the tall hot skeleton, thank you very much.” Chara whispered to herself.*”

“I heard that.”

“YOU HEARD NOTHING!”

“…”

“…”

“Truth or Dare?”

“Huh?”

“Truth or Dare?”

A sinister red smile came across her face. “Dare.”

“I dare you to cuddle with Papyrus.”

Her smile left her face as she turned red. “What?!”

“I dare you to cuddle with Papyrus.”

She was frozen for a moment. Then she recovered and smiled. “Ok then. But in return, you cuddle with Sans.”

“W-Wha? I-I don’t like- I mean he’s…” She took a deep breath. “I just don’t think of him that way.”

“*Yes you do.* It’s still a dare.” Her sinister smile illuminated the room.

“…Fine…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \--Headcanon #1-- (I'm allowed to do these right?)  
Despite Papyrus calling Frisk and Chara little ones, they are that much younger than Sans and Papyrus.
> 
> ugh, typing with an on-screen keyboard is a big pain.  
also, using workskins is very tasking. editing this took 'bout an hour just copying and pasting.


	3. Don't Kill, or Be Killed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M NOT DEAD I SWEAR!  
Sorry for not updating, but I'll get a Christmas Special out as an apology.

Frisk woke up and noticed the empty space beside her. Chara was already awake. She entered the living room and saw Chara, who seemed to be patiently waiting for her.

“Hey, little mirror, watch and learn.” Chara seemed oddly determined to complete the dare. She walked up to Papyrus, who was currently busy cleaning up the place.

“Hey Papyrus?” She said, feigning fear.

“yes, chara?”

“I’m scared.”

“why?”

“Rei might hurt me for leaving without telling him first.” _Oh yeah, Asriel, her younger brother._ She clung to Papyrus.

“don’t worry, i’ll be there to clear any problems.” He said this, yet it seemed he fell for it, hook, line and sinker.

He carried her in his arms. “since you’re feeling sad, why don’t i read you a nice story by the fire?”

“Th-That would be nice.” Frisk couldn’t believe it. Chara shot Frisk her signature red smile.

_Ugh. Now I have no choice._

* * *

Sans woke up from the seventh… no eighth nightmare in one night. All of them had been about the proclamation that was supposed to happen today.

In some, he saw the entire nation revolt and attack them.

In another one, he saw Frisk and Papyrus getting ambushed on their way through a town and killed.

In the rest… well, that’s a story best left untold.

“Sans! Breakfast is ready!” Frisk said from the other side of the door.

He slowly got off his bed and changed.

* * *

Frisk and Chara were sitting by the table, staring at the delicious apple pie Papyrus had for breakfast. Apparently, Papyrus had gone out earlier in the morning and bought some apples to use in making his pie. Now they were waiting for Sans. Speaking of which…

“heya frisk. paps, chara.”

“Good morning, Sans.” Frisk and Chara responded, not taking their eyes off the pie.

“Finally decided to…” Papyrus noticed the bags under his eyes (sockets). “Oh… don’t tell me you were having nightmares.”

“huh. s’nothing i can’t handle.” He put some water on the stove to heat.

“It’s about the proclamation, isn’t it?”

Sans froze. “maybe.”

"Well, maybe some pie might help.”

Frisk stood up. “I’ll help you make some coffee.”

“wait, you don’t need to… and she’s gone.”

Papyrus started to share the pie. Frisk came back with some coffee. All ‘n’ all, ‘twas a delicious breakfast.

* * *

Frisk went down to the garden. It seemed Sans wasn’t an expert at growing flowers, but he tried. He even had some gardening books around. Frisk had had some experience tending to plants, so she took it upon herself to take care of them. With the few things she had, she could probably make due.

“You know, you seem pretty special, little mirror.”

Frisk turned back to face Chara, who was currently resting on the entrance to the garden. “Don’t call me-”

“Nobody. No one. No **human** would be able to convince the King to abolish the ‘kill or be killed’ rule; let alone reunite him with the Prince.”

“T-that wasn’t me!” Frisk protested.

“Oh? Then who?” Chara smiled.

“…” She averted her eyes in embarrassment.

“My point exactly.”

“…Is that all?”

“Uh…”

“Are you going to help me or not?” Frisk asked in a demanding sort of tone, gesturing towards the flowers.

“And why should I care about a bunch of flowers? Shouldn’t you be more worried about the proclamation happening at noon?”

“Well, tending to these flowers helps me calm down,” Frisk said calmly.

“And so?”

“I’ll tell you more about Papyrus if you help.” Frisk bargained.

“Hah! I know more about him than you. Heck, you barely know him!”

“I buy you as much chocolate as you want.”

“(Nani! How did she-?) …Ok. But if you don’t make due on-” Chara reluctantly agreed.

“Just help.”

“Fine.”

* * *

Sans walked into the garden looking for Frisk and was met with a scene that shocked him. Frisk and Chara sat in the garden talking and making flower crowns for each other. Adorable, especially in a world like this. _It’s kinda beautiful._ _Especially Frisk._

_F*ck! The hell are you thinking, Sans?! _His cheekbones lit up as he averted his gaze to the ground.

“Hey, sans…” Papyrus paused and approached him. “Who is it?” He asked with a teasing tone.

“i don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, still staring at the ground.

“Oh, don’t act dumb. Though judging by who you were staring at, I assume it’s Frisk.”

“shh!!” He tried to cover Papyrus’s mouth, but he, unfortunately, was too short. (More like Papyrus was too tall)

“So I’m right.”

“maybe…”

“Yes.”

“ugh… yes.”

“So why don’t you tell her? After the proclamation that is.” He paused and chuckled. “Don’t tell me you’re shy.”

“n-no!”

Papyrus sighed and looked at the two women. “Promise me something sans.”

“what?” He was a bit surprised at the sudden change of subject. Usually, Papyrus would chase the subject ‘til something distracts him or something more important comes up.

“After the proclamation and Chara and I go back to the Ruins, promise me you’ll do everything in your power to protect Frisk.”

“come on, you know i don’t like making promises.” He too turned to face the two women.

“Promise me.” He urged.

“fine. i promise.”

“Anyway, it’s about time we leave. Frisk! Chara! Time to-”

_“leaf.”_

“Sans.”

"fine. i’ll _lettuce leaf_”

“Stop.”

* * *

It was noon, according to Asgore, that is. All the monsters had gathered together for the announcement. Papyrus was in the crowd protecting the monsters from the Ruins. This group was usually seen as the weakest due to the fact that they are the most peaceful. Sans stayed with Frisk and Chara on a platform above the crowd, Toriel in front of them.

Toriel was to read out the proclamation the moment it turned noon.

“By order of the King, here on from 12:00 PM, the XXth day of the XXth month of year 20XX, a previous rule that stated it was ‘kill or be killed’ has been abolished. Anyone who attacks with intent to kill, or kills a fellow monster or human, without a good reason will be punished. These punishments vary starting with a warning and ending with the possibility of execution.”

There was a mixed reaction from the crowd. Some were reasonable and agreed with the new law. Some obviously didn’t like it, but they didn’t argue. And some **really** didn’t like it. Most. More like more than 50%. But we had planned for this.

Barrages of blue bones went through the crowd, restraining those that were about to attack. The rest of the crowd was dismissed. Those restrained followed soon after, under the watch of the royal guard.

* * *

Sans and Frisk followed Papyrus and Chara back to Old Hope. Frisk, because she wanted to see how it looked. Sans, because he was worried about his nightmares coming true.

They stopped by the Frosted Fields to see Asriel, however, Frisk took advantage of this to buy chocolate for Chara. A lot. Sans’ wallet was losing lots of weight.

“Where were you?! I thought you were l-los… slacking off somewhere. Do you know how worried I was… that a human might fall through and you weren’t here?”

_He’s bad at lying when he’s worried. That’s my Lil' bro for ya._

“I was at a friend’s place…” Chara responded.

“For two days?! Who are these friends of yours anyway?!”

“Uh…”

“Chara, what’s taking so long?” Papyrus stepped into the siblings’ home.

“IS THAT THE PRINCE?!?!”

“…maybe? Uh… Yes?”

“OH GOD. WHERE ARE MY MANNERS? I HAVEN’T CLEANED UP ENOUGH YET! UH… GOOD AFTERNOON, YOU’RE MAJESTY.”

“No need for that, little one. Um… what was it again? Asriel?”

“He’s eighteen.”

“YOU KNOW MY NAME?!”

“Yes… Chara told me.”

“hey, paps, what’s taking so long. You said we were just gonna tell Asriel and we’d leave.” Sans said, entering with Frisk.

“YOU’RE FRIENDS WITH THE KING TOO?!”

“oh shit”

…

“So, what you’re telling is that Chara wants to live in the Ruins with the Prince,” Asriel said.

“PAPYRUS” Papyrus interjected.

“That’s about it,” Chara responded.

“Ok. At least I know where you are.” Asriel said. “That still doesn’t explain why there’s a human with you.”

“She fell in through New Hope and is now in the King’s custody. She also wanted to see Old Hope.”

“Alright. Maybe she could come to visit later and try out my puzzles.”

“Yeah… maybe later.”

“Alright then. You can go. Don’t forget to tell mum and dad.”

“Sure.”

The tour of Old Hope was great, according to Frisk. The walls were brick red, obviously due to the purple paint peeling off. Most of the traps had been deemed too scary and dangerous by Papyrus, thus they were deactivated.

And finally, they got to the beginning of Old Hope. The hole above through which all the fallen humans fell. All, except her.

She knelt down in the bed of flowers that lay in the middle of the room. Suddenly a heartbeat rang through her ears. And suddenly, for a split second, she could have sworn that all the colors inverted, and she felt a faint pain in her soul. And after the inversion… a red heart floating in front of her chest.

“Ugh.” She put her hand on her chest. The heart disappeared.

“is there something wrong?”

“N-no…”

***You tell him it’s nothing.**

"Sans, did you hear that?”

“hear what?”

“Uh… don’t worry.”

“frisk, is something wrong?” he looked quite worried as he approached. He knelt down beside her and pulled out the same red heart using his magic.

“nothing wrong with your soul…”

“This is my soul?”

“yes. human souls are represented by a heart, while monster souls are represented by upside-down white hearts. i’ll tell you more later.” He stood up and held out his hands towards her. She accepted and he helped her up.

As they left the room, Frisk asked, “Sans, do you know anything about ghost monsters?”

“huh? uh… yeah. why’d you ask?”

“Could you tell me some things about them?”

“uh… well i barely know anything about their race. i did know two of ‘em, but… they’re long gone.”

“Oh… sorry for bringing this up but, was one of them perhaps a reddish-purple color?”

“yeah… how’d you know about that? Metta’s color was unique.”

“They’re following me, and they seem to want to narrate whatever I do, though it seems only I hear them.”

“oh… so that’s what that was about.”

The walk back to Papyrus’s home was silent, apart from Frisk and Chara’s interactions with Alphys.

* * *

They had their lunch at Papyrus’s house, one of Papyrus’s spaghetti specials. It was truly a treat. Frisk went back out afterward to take a final look at the Ruins before she left. Not that this would be her last time here, but she doesn’t know when she might come back.

Then she looked down to her right and saw one of those flashing yellow stars, she, for the first time, decided to interact with them.

“So it was you.”

She turned back to see Chara standing behind her. “Stop sneaking up on me.”

“Habit. You can thank Sans for that.”

“You sound like you’ve known him for a long time.”

“Eh, interacted with him for a while when I fell here. But that’s not the point.” Chara looked at the star, no, she was looking at where she thought it might be, like she couldn’t see it.

“You can’t see the star?”

“Nope, only you can; in other words, only the most determined soul underground can see it. Had the ability once, till you came. Well let me explain. Determination, the ability to stay determined in any situation and overcome it. The most determined soul can turn back time at will and revert decisions, however **some consequences last forever.** One thing to note, only humans naturally have determination, monsters don’t, with a few exceptions.”

“Okay…” It took Frisk a while to process what Chara had just said. “So you’re telling me, every time I die, time rewinds back to when I was alive.”

“Not exactly, you rewind to your last save point. Those flashing stars act as save points. When you die, time rewinds to the point you last interacted with them.”

“So, almost like a video game?”

“You can think about it like that.”

“Anyway, I wonder, what made you want to live with Papyrus?” Frisk saw a little flush of red on Chara’s face as the latter averted her gaze.

“Reasons…”

“You told Asriel that it was so you could know if any humans fell down, but we both know that’s not it.” Frisk had a smug expression on her face while she stood up.

“I have my reasons.”

“And they are?” Frisk was leaning in closer.

“Knock knock.”

“huh? Who’s there?”

“Nana.”

“Nana who?”

“Nana your business.”

“Seriously?” Frisk looked annoyed.

“See you!” Chara ran away.

“Hey! Get back here!” Frisk chased after Chara, who was running to her new room.

* * *

Sans stood deep in thought in a corridor that lead to the exit of the Ruins.

“Hey, Sans.”

“oh, hey paps.”

“You seemed deep in thought there, is something wrong?”

“no.”

“mhmm”

“it’s nothing much, i’m just grateful to have meet someone like frisk.”

“And that brings me to the reason I’m here. How am I sure you won’t get frisky with Frisk when you’re back home?”

“what do you-?” Realization hit him. “youuuu!!!!!”

“I’m just playing with ya.”

“What says you won’t do the same with chara?”

“The fact that I know my boundaries.”

“huh.”

“Remember, Sans, remember your promise.”

“no need to remind me, cause I didn’t only promise you.”

“huh?”

“I promised myself too.”

“pft. You should confess now while you have the chance.”

“shut it!”

“She’s gonna find out one way or another.”

“hmph!”

“Anyway, I’m here to see my favorite, and only, older brother before he leaves.”

“has chara seen this side of you?”

“Not yet.”

“why am I not surprised?” he sighs “frisk, it’s time to go!”

“Well then, see ya later.”

“see you later.”

* * *

Sans got home pretty tired after the eight-hour walk through the entire underground. Frisk had taken the time to interact with every monster she saw, and Sans was there through all of it. The moment he get home, he fell onto his bed and was instantly asleep.

He woke up to the smell of a delicious pie. At the dining table stood Frisk, patiently waiting for him.

“There’s some coffee for you in the kitchen.”

He went to the kitchen. “thanks.”

“uh… frisk?”

“Yes?”

“why are there buttercups in the kitchen? don‘t tell me you-”

“I used them for the pie.”

“oh dear God.” He said. “you were supposed to use cups of butter, buttercups are poisonous!…” he ran into the dining just as Frisk finished eating her slice of the pie.

“oh no.”

* * *

Frisk had just finished the second slice of her pie when Sans stopped her, so she had already consumed a considerable amount of buttercups. And now here he was, nursing a sick Frisk in her room.

“I- I’m *cough* sorry.”

“don’t apologize, it was a simple mistake. happens to the best of us.”

“N-no… It was supposed to *cough* be a t-thank you gift for *cough* staying those eight hours with me instead o- of leaving.”

_Oh so that was why._ “You didn’t have to.”

“B- But-”

“shh… get some rest, you need it.”

**_Ring… Ring…_** A ringing sound came from Sans’ pocket, in particular, his phone. He took it out and accepted the call.

“Hello?”

“Sans… we may have a problem…” Papyrus said from the other side. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have no idea what slight buttercup poisoning feels like, so bear with me.
> 
> Also, I was in the middle of posting this when I realized that in StoryShift, The Ruins is named Old Hope, so yeah. Hope I didn't make that mistake in the previous chapter.


	4. Old Enemies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who needs old friends when you can have old enemies?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> School started but that won't stop me. I got about 11 - 12 pages of Chapter 5 while I'm posting this, so I guess that might come sooner.  
Warning: Mentions of rape. Not much, but thought I'd put it there.  
<strike> By the way, totally didn't forget Metacrit.</strike>

“Sans, we may have a problem…”

“what happened?”

“You mean what’s happening. Three humans just fell into the underground and are looking for someone who… they’re looking for Frisk.”

“alright, i’ll be right there.”

Sans returned the phone to his pocket and stood up to face the door. His right eye light vanished, and the left eye light flashed red and yellow, with a bit of blue.

“Sans, wait…”

“huh?” He turned back to Frisk, his eye light returning to normal.

“Let me… come with…”

“no frisk, i’m not sure it’s safe. and either way, it’s better for you to stay in bed.”

“Please.”

“frisk.” Frisk tried to get up from the bed to meet Sans, but he stopped her before she could.

“fine.” His left eye light flashed again, and in an instant, they were in Old Hope. The guest bedroom in Papyrus’ home in Old Hope to be specific. It almost looked like they hadn’t teleported at all because the rooms looked so similar.

“alright. stay here.”

“Do-”

A gunshot could be heard.

“paps?! chara?!”

* * *

Sans ran outside. Papyrus and Chara were standing by the entrance, defending themselves with bones and knives. There were three male humans in front of them, one held a gun, the others holding knives. There was a hole in the wall behind Papyrus, so the bullet must have missed.

Frisk stumbled outside, and the one with the gun smiled sinisterly and aimed the gun at Frisk, and pulled the trigger. Sans teleported in front of her, defending her with a blaster's head. When she saw them, there was obvious fear and recognition written on her face. _Wait. That means that…_

**“you…”**

“P- Please. Don’t kill them.”

** _What? ‘Don’t kill them’? These fu*king sh*theads tried to kill Justine by dropping her down here, then they tried to fu*king kill you too, yet you still ask for these a$$holes safety?_ **

“Please.”

**“fine.” **He teleported himself and her to the bedroom, then teleported himself back outside.

**“you little fu*kers.”** He said, his left eye starting to flare. **“you think you can fu*king waltz around doing sh*t without consequences.”** Papyrus had never seen him this angry since Papyrus was just a little child when the underground was still… sane.

**“It’s a terrible day outside...”** Papyrus recognized that phrase. He stood back and motioned to Chara to move away. **“Birds are screaming, flowers are wilting...”**

**“And on days like these, people like you...”**

**“SHOULD BE BURNING IN HELL** **!!!** **”**

God, what happened next was brutal. Their bodies went flying, hitting walls all over the place. Bones pierced them in every way imaginable. Beams of energy constantly pierced and launched them, released from skull-like creatures with four red eye lights.

In the end, each of them only had a sliver of HP remaining. Sans had finally calmed down, his eye lights returning to normal. They were on the floor beside each other, barely conscious, heavily wounded and bleeding. He faced them, his hands returning to his pockets.

“count yourselves lucky that the same person you chased into this mountain asked for your lives to be spared. if not for frisk, **y o u ‘ d a l r e a d y b e d e a d.**”

“Sh*t,” Chara said to herself.

“papyrus, why don’t we show our guests the **prison**?”

“Alright…” Papyrus summoned a bone cage around them and pulled out his phone to call Toriel.

Sans walked back into the bedroom he had left Frisk to find her missing. “what?! where is she?”

He searched through the entire house before noticing the toilet. Someone seemed to be doing something in there.

He knocked on the door. “uh… frisk, you in there?”

No response

“anyone in there?”

Still no response.

“i’m coming in…”

Nothing. Then a noise.

He opened the door. Frisk was bent over the in the toilet, vomiting. Odd, considering monster food is absorbed not digested… unless… She probably bought some physical ingredients for the pie, so her stomach could digest it.

“uh…”

Frisk finished vomiting and sat on the floor, obviously in pain. It seems her body was probably trying to get rid of the buttercups and its poison.

“What happened?”

He turned back to see Papyrus. “oh no. um… so…”

* * *

“So what you’re telling me is that she has slight buttercup poisoning.”

“y- yes…”

“And you did nothing to stop it?”

“I was asleep.”

Papyrus, Sans, Chara and Frisk were in the guest bedroom in Old Hope. Papyrus was unhappy with Sans for letting Frisk get poisoned, while Chara sat by Frisk, who was lying on the bed, tending to her needs.

“I- it’s not his fault, Papyrus,” Frisk said.

“…I guess. Just be more careful next time.” Papyrus’ phone rung. He took it out and checked it. “Oh, it’s Toriel. She’s probably here already. You should ask her about buttercup poisoning while she’s here.” He left the room, Sans following behind.

“Hey Frisk,” Chara said.

“Y- yes?”

“After you recover, would you like to hang out? I know a good place in the Frosted Plains that-”

“Has lots of chocolate?”

“Yes, I go there a lot, so they’re always stocked up on chocolate.”

“Huh. I guess it’ll be nice.”

“Great, get well soon.”

“Wait.”

“What?”

“How are things with Papyrus?”

“…Should have expected that from you. We’re fine.”

“No, I mean-”

Just then the door opened and Toriel and Sans walked in.

“My child, Chara, are you alright?” Toriel asked

“Yeah, nothing happened to me. I can’t say the same for the attackers though.” Chara responded.

“That’s a relief. So Sans, when did the poisoning happen?”

“this morning,” Sans responded.

“What happened exactly?”

“she was making a butterscotch-cinnamon pie and mistook cups of butter for buttercups.”

“Then it shouldn’t be dangerous. The baking process of the pie gets rid of most of the poison, so she should recover quickly.”

“oh, thank god,” Sans said with relief.

“So where are the humans that attacked?”

“just outside the front door.”

“Ok then. I assume you’re going back home soon.”

“yes,” Sans replied.

“Alright then. See you later,” She said, before leaving with Chara.

Sans moved to Frisk’s side and found her already asleep. He teleported both of them back to his home in New Hope. He laid her in her bed and left to eat lunch.

* * *

Sans and Chara stood at the entrance to the Prison, which was located in the Boiler.

“Must be great to have no skin, right? That way, you don’t have to worry about what staying in hot temperatures for too long will do to you, like dehydration,” Chara said.

“…” Sans remained silent.

“You hate them, don’t you? You want to strangle them, kill them.”

“judge me all you want, that won’t distract me from why i’m here.”

“Alright then, dear King.”

“i still don’t get why you… actually, let’s just go.”

“Whatever you say, your majesty.”

The Building was huge, mostly due to the fact that it was part of the Core.

“My dad did a pretty great job on this,” Chara said.

“yes, he did,” Sans muttered.

“Sans, what were my parents to you?” Chara asked after hearing his last words.

“i’d say they were… guides. they helped and guided me after my parents… passed away.”

“First of all, ‘me’? What about Paps?”

“i raised him myself after what happened.”

“Secondly, what happened to your parents? No one seems to even remember your father in particular.”

“didn’t know my mom much. my dad, however… he was the previous royal scientist. you know, before your father. after the war, he was elected to be the new king. his name was W. D. Gaster.”

“What was his name?”

“W. D. Gaster.”

“Say that slowly.”

“<strike>w… d… g-a-s-t-e-</strike> W. D. Gaster”

“W. D. Gaste_?”

“-r”

“<strike>W. D. Gaster?</strike> W. D. Gaster?”

“yeah.”

“I will never understand how and why you skeletons talk in different fonts. Before I came here, I heard of different languages, but now, I also have to keep track of your fonts.”

“you’ll find that the only difficult one is wingdings.”

“Wingdings?”

“the font you accidentally spoke in just now.”

“Wait… I just remembered, does he have to do with those grey monsters that sometimes show up randomly?”

“yup.”

“So his creation was…”

“the core.”

“So, you became King early not only because you were intelligent, but because your dad was elected to be King, but he disappeared?”

“yup.”

“My only question would be that if everyone forgot he existed or if he actually did cease to exist, how are things still exactly the same as if he was here the entire time?”

“‘have you ever imagined a world where everything is the same, except you don’t exist?’ do you remember those words that kid said?”

“Yeah. I guess that’s it then.”

Sans’ eye lights suddenly disappeared, sending chills down Chara’s spine. “we’re here.”

_I thought as the judge I was supposed to be able to make the scariest face, but whenever that happens, it always surprises me._

* * *

“Wow, what a surprise. Has the King come to visit me? A new prisoner?” One of the three humans said. He seemed to be the leader and was the one holding the gun earlier.

“It seems you have forgotten you aren’t the only one here. Or you’re just very arrogant, you’re lackeys aren’t helping you with that it seems.” Chara responded.

“Heh. Well, you should watch what you say, pretty face, or you could lose a few teeth.” He quickly pulled a pebble from his pocket and threw it at Chara’s face.

**Miss.** Chara quickly dodged.

“Did you just call me ‘pretty face’?” Chara’s face started to melt, her eyes pitch black and the black colour seemed to flow down from both eyes and her mouth. Sans did not move much, but his left eye socket faintly started to glow red.

The human quickly retreated to the back of the cell. He could’ve sworn he felt his sins crawl up his back.

“anyway, we aren’t here to threaten each other,” Sans said, his eye lights returned. “but, if you don’t comply, we just might. so, there’s the easy way and the **hard way**.”

Chara’s face returned to normal. “As a judge, I have to listen to both sides of the argument or conflict. Will you state why you tried to kill the Prince and a very close friend of ours, a human like yourself?” She said.

“I wasn’t told I need a reason for anything other than pleasure and satisfaction.” He said obviously shaking, but surprisingly managing to hold in his fear.

“show him,” Sans said.

Chara pulls out a rolled-up paper from her hoodie and opens it up from them to read.

He reads it a bit before saying, “And so? Heh, we haven’t killed anyone!”

“But you attempted to. Twice. Without good reason,” Chara said. “Meaning the punishments apply. Luckily for you, your punishment has been reduced due to an affected party asking for us to be lenient. You will just serve some time in prison. That time, however, is yet to be decided.”

“And is that all?”

“Yes,” Chara said as she rolled up the paper.

“Mhmm, you’re still just some ‘pretty face’ who thinks they can boss me around”

“**What did you just say?!**” Her face instantly melted again, red knives materializing around her, all pointed towards him. He hid behind one of the other prisoners, who was now very scared, since the knives now pointed at him, rather, what was behind him.

Sans put his him on Chara’s shoulder. “don’t let him get to you. that’s what he wants.” He turned to the three of them. “by the way, i advise you make the most of the meals you get here.”

And with that, Sans and Chara returned to their respective homes.

* * *

“It’s alright Frisk. There was nothing we could’ve done,” She heard Justine say. She was trying to comfort her.

Where was she? She was crying? Crying over what? Then the realization hit her like a truck.

And she couldn’t stop. She couldn’t stop crying. She couldn’t get rid of the sorrow in her soul. And the fear. It was eating away at her. Who would be taken next? Who was going to **die** next? Why did they have to suffer? Why had most people forgotten kindness? How could she go on like this? So many questions plagued her mind, their answer only convincing reasons to give up and kick the bucket.

But she was determined. She had to stay determined. It was the only way they would be able to survive here. But the image of her friend’s dead body, it wouldn’t go away. **No! Go away! Why? She didn’t deserve to die. Stop. But why? WHY?!**

Frisk woke up suddenly in the middle of the night. Well, she assumed it was since it was dark around. She quietly snuck into Sans’ room and saw him sound asleep. She was going to quietly sneak into his bed and stay there for comfort, but a question arose in her mind.

_How do skeletons eat?_

He wasn’t wearing his jacket, so that made things easier. She took off the sheets covering him until his torso was uncovered, then proceeded to take off his shirt. Sure enough, the only thing there was his ribcage. But, there was an upside-down heart floating there with a red glow surrounding it.

_His soul._

It seemed to be approximately where a human’s heart would be. On closer inspection, it seemed to also have a weak blue glow at one side, like a crack in a coating. She felt for anything else in his ribcage by poking around, which he showed slight irritation at, so she prodded around a bit more carefully. There was nothing more apart from the obvious.

Finally, from underneath his ribcage, she reached for his soul. She got close to feeling it when Sans suddenly woke up.

“wha-?!”

She quickly withdrew her hand, but it was too late to hide what she had been doing.

“what’s going on?” he asked.

“Uh… I-I um… I was trying to find out how skeletons eat…”

“oh... i guess that’s understandable. though, may i question why you’re awake so late?” He said, looking at the wall clock.

“… I… had a nightmare.”

“oh. uh… do you wanna talk ‘bout it? You don’t have to.”

“It was about one of my old best friends.”

* * *

“  
Her name was Gloria. Back on the surface, we had a group of friends that usually hung out together, looked after one another, and protected one another. Gloria was part of our little group, along with Justine, I and William.

It was a good idea, we were able to defend ourselves well since we were usually always in each other’s company. Gloria’s parents, however, were not receptive to this idea, rightfully saying she should spend more time with her family. Unfortunately, Gloria and her family didn’t get along very well, which sometimes led to her being stuck at home because her family wouldn’t let her out.

One day, Gloria didn’t meet up with us or call, but we shrugged it off and thought she was staying with her family, or maybe she was working extra to save up so we could live Ebott City. We had always thought things were better out there. Nothing happened the next day. Or the day after that.

After those three days had gone by, the three of us were walking through the city when William saw… he saw Gloria’s body in the dumpster.

Upon closer inspection, h-h-her clothes s-seemed to be torn around her ch-chest and waist, and sh-she… **she wasn’t breathing.** It was o-obvious what had happened. She had obviously been k-kidnapped, **raped**, and killed.

It… it…

”

* * *

Tears had started to fall from Frisk’s eyes when she narrated her finding Gloria’s corpse but when she got to her finding out how Gloria died, she burst out crying and couldn’t hold herself anymore. Sans tried to comfort her and she found herself crying on his shirt, not that he minded. All she could do was ask “Why?!” over and over while crying out her eyes. She blamed herself for not realizing something was wrong sooner.

Sans just sat there holding Frisk in his arms, comforting her. It was sad, such a kind and determined soul, burdened with guilt and sorrow for something that wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t right. Someone as kind as her didn’t deserve to live in such a cruel place. Didn’t deserve to be stuck under a mountain with monsters like him who were previously willing to kill innocents for flimsy reasons. God could seem pretty cruel at times.

Eventually, Frisk calmed down but stayed silent. It was just both of them, Frisk in his arms, and the silence they shared. They just laid there, waiting for the sweet embrace of sleep to cover them.

“…S-sans?” Frisk said quietly.

“yes?”

“I’m sorry for getting your shirt wet.”

“don’t worry about it. just rest, for now, ok sweetheart?”

“Ok. Good night, Sans.”

“good night.” He said, before placing a quick kiss on her forehead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry... At least the dare's complete.  
Also yes, there's a toilet in Papyrus' home. Why not if you're gonna have humans pass through there?


	5. Responsibilities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans starts to take responsibility.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edits:  
Changed the title. Would make it something like "Storyfell - A Simple Change" or maybe "Storyfell - A Change In The Story" or something, but I wanted something simple and understandable. Tell me if you like the change.  
I remember saying I would edit this on Monday, but it's taken me almost a week to do this so... I guess I'm sorry. Anyway, this edit should make things a bit clearer.

Frisk woke up alone in Sans’ bed. _Guess that means he woke up early for once._ She turned around in the bed and saw Sans sitting in a chair by the bedside watching her. _Well, I wasn’t wrong._

“oh, you’re finally awake,” He said.

This reminded her of when she first met him. A scary-looking skeleton sitting beside her and the lack of light didn’t help things that all. Surprisingly, at least to her at the time, he was crying. Except, this time, he wasn’t crying his eye sockets out, neither were those bags under his eye sockets.

And instead of using the given opportunity to run back then, though she probably would have failed and regretted it, she decided to comfort him. Justine had warned her that her kindness may put her in danger one day. And at the time, she thought she was acting stupid too. But now she’s living freely, sort of, protected by a skeleton she may find slightly attractive. Well, maybe more than slightly. He looked healthy, happy and peaceful this time. Seeing him like this brought a smile to her face.

***Why don’t you just tell him, darling?**

_What?! Now?!_

“uh… Frisk is something wrong? you’ve just been staring at me.”

“Oh no. Nothing’s wrong.” She said, smiling.

“oh, alright then. i made us some butterscotch cinnamon pie.”

“Really? Thanks.”

“it was no problem. anyway, how are you feeling now?”

“Well…” Frisk attempted to get out of bed. She was very tired, but she managed it eventually without help. “I… feel better. Very tired, but better.”

“guess that means you’re almost fully recovered.”

“I guess so.”

“let’s go have to breakfast,” Sans said before holding out his hand. Frisk looked at the wall clock. It was almost 10 in the morning. _Did I sleep that long?_ She accepted his hand. _I guess that makes sense after what happened last night._ To Frisk’s surprise, instead of instantly teleporting both of them to the dining room, he walked her out of his room instead to where the pie laid.

God, it smelt delicious.

“tori came over and helped me make it.”

“It smells delicious.”

“real-”

Frisk dashed to a seat and grabbed the knife, cutting herself a piece before eating it hungrily.

“-ly?”

Then she ate another one. And another. There was just about half of it left when she realized that Sans had not had any.

“Um… sorry about that,” she said brushing the crumbs off her mouth with her arm. “You can have the rest.”

Sans took the seat beside her. “nah, don’t worry, i made the pie for you anyway. at least i know it’s delicious.” Sans took the knife and cut himself half of the remaining pie.

“Oh… are you sure you don’t want more?”

“nah.”

“Alright then,” Frisk says before hungrily consuming the rest of the pie and rubbing of crumbs with her sleeve.

“wow, you must really have been hungry.” He finishes a slice of his pie before saying, “you missed a spot.”

“What?”

“there are some crumbs on your cheek.”

“Where?” She attempts to rub it off but misses it.

Sans stood up to grab a nearby napkin and cleaned a spot under Frisk mouth.

_W-What?!?!_

***Your face turns incredibly red. Impossibly red. I didn’t know humans could be this red, darling.**

“is something wrong? your face is red. wait, are you sick now or something?!”

Frisk struggled to compose herself. “N-no! I was just surprised, that’s all!”

“oh. ok then.” Sans sighed in relief. He sat down and finished his last slice of pie.

“alright,” Sans said as he picked up both empty plates. “what are you going to do before tori comes over?”

“I don’t know. There’s not much to do here and I don’t think I should go out just yet.”

“so you’re not gonna read in the library? i thought you would like reading.”

“What library?”

“you know, the room at the end of the corridor”

“You mean your room?”

“nope, the one after that”

Frisk stood up and looked into the corridor. Sure enough, there was a room at the end of the corridor she hadn’t noticed before.

“I… I never noticed that before.”

“surprising, since the author put that library there around chapter 2.” Sans muttered to himself

“What?”

“nothing.” He entered the kitchen.

* * *

The library was enormous compared to the other rooms in the house, and it also had a second floor. Maybe it was the second floor. Frisk walked through the library, trying to decide which books to start with. Eventually, she decided on just two:

  * Monster Basics
  * Humans: Everything We Know About Them. Simplified Version

Frisk started with the book about monsters, skipping the history section and moving straight to the biology section. There were different mini-sections: terrestrial monsters, amphibious monsters, aquatic monsters, and so on. She eventually found skeletons in the terrestrial section.

According to the book, there were only two skeletons known to still be alive currently. _Sans and Papyrus_, she thought. She read further, only to find, to her disappointment, that they were just living skeletons with monster souls. They, however, seemed to have an affinity for blue magic.

_Blue? I thought everything was red here._ Then she remembered Sans’ left eye. When it flashed, she thought she saw a flash of blue apart from the obvious red and yellow.

She flipped to the magic section of the book and found the chapter about blue magic, which was divided into three. First was blue soul magic, which was able to manipulate the gravitational pull on a soul. A soul. She’d have to ask Sans about that later, but for now, her assumption was that souls were not affected by gravity, only the body was. She continued reading. At the basic form, it allows a soul to be affected normally by gravity. If it’s mastered, the user is capable of manipulating gravity to the fullest, being able to change the direction and magnitude of the force of gravity on a soul, able to make someone feel very heavy or practically weightless.

Then there were the attacks: light blue attacks will only hit an opponent if they are moving. It was more common compared to its polar opposite, orange attacks. Orange attacks apparently only hit if the opponent is not moving. They are only used in security lasers, but some suspect skeletons of being able to use them, due to their affinity with movement oriented magic. However, this has not been proved or disproved, as no skeleton has ever been seen to use it, neither have the confirmed or denied that they can.

The last division was for special cases that weren’t common. The only entries here were Sans’ ability to teleport and his left eye, with pictures and detailed notes on them. The “1st stage” showed a flashing blue and yellow eye instead of the red and yellow she thought she knew, though the next set of pictures showed that red eye. The last set of pictures confirmed her suspicions: there was indeed a hint of blue apart from the obvious red and yellow.

“whatcha reading?”

Frisk almost jumped out of her seat. “What?!”

“whatcha reading?” Sans repeated.

“…It’s a book about monsters.”

“monster basics?” he looked at the book she was reading.

“Yes.”

“hmm… this must be the most recent book. i can see dr. asgore has been writing in-depth about my left eye.”

“Doctor Asgore?”

“the royal scientist, asgore. he’s tori’s husband, but they aren’t exactly seeing eye-to-eye.”

“Oh... May I ask about your eye?”

“you mean this one?” Both his eye lights disappeared, his left one replaced by a flashing red and yellow eye, again, with a hint of blue. This sudden change scared her.

***You feel a shiver go up your spine. Seems like you need more _backbone._**

His eye lights returned to normal. “oh, sorry. i forgot people tend to get scared by that.”

“N-no! It’s alright. I wanted to have a look at it anyway.”

“why?”

“Well, I read just now that your flashing eye was originally blue and yellow.”

“...that is true.”

“I see a hint of blue there now. I was wondering if you knew why your eye’s colour is changing, if it is.”

“oh.”

“Is it just your eye reverting to normal?”

“could be, asgore said so.”

“Why did it change in the first place?”

“…” He looked away, not wanting to tell her, yet his mind constantly reminded him of last night. _That memory must be painful for her to recall, yet she willing told me... I guess... I shouldn’t keep these things from her._

“I under-”

“it’s a representation.” He picked up the book about humans and opened it, looking for a page. “the colour red was supposed to show how ‘corrupt’ or, as asgore said, hopeless and filled with guilt I was. However, you and chara’s soul, plus her eyes, are red for a different reason.” He dropped the book in front of her.

“determination. both you and chara possess determined souls, which are represented by red hearts,” He says, pulling out both her soul and his.

“i said i’d tell you about souls right? your soul is literally the culmination of your being. it represents who your goals, experiences, everything that makes you you. well, in a nutshell, it just represents who you are. there are seven types of human souls we know, represented by their colour. The trait/type of a human soul is dependent on the concentration of the seven different traits in the soul: Patience, Integrity, Justice, Bravery, Kindness, Perseverance, and finally, Determination; a trait only humans possess.”

“‘Only humans’? Monsters don’t possess determination?”

“they don’t. monster souls are made up of the first six traits i mentioned, and without then, they aren’t themselves anymore. that’s why some of the monsters were able to accept the new law put in place. however, determination is a trait monsters don’t possess, though there are exceptions, a popular one being undyne.”

“Monsters always have those traits in them…” She remembered how Toriel reacted, and <strike>that the author thinks he didn’t write it out well</strike> how she reacted a bit oddly. “That explains some things. That still doesn’t explain how you got that eye in the first place.”

He sighed. “personally, i don’t remember.”

“Oh, ok then.”

“want me to read with you? i know a pretty good book.”

“Sure, I’d like some company.”

***Sans brings a book from one of the shelves and takes a seat beside you. He shifts closer so you both may see better, his skull right beside your head. But maybe that’s...**

_That’s too close!_

***Is there a problem, darling?~**

Frisk flushed red, starting to think that this was all a dream. She slight turned to Sans, scared that the skeleton would feel her breathing on his skull. But he was oblivious, more proof that this was a dream.

“are you done?” His eye lights quickly turned to her, his skull unmoved. She quickly turned away and he chuckled, thinking she was still curious about his eye.

They continued to read in this way until a knock on the front door was heard.

Sans stood up. “i’ll be right back, you can continue if you like.”

“No, I think I’ve read enough for now.”

“alright.” He teleported to the front door.

Frisk sighed in relief.

_He’s finally gone… Why was he so close?!_

***You’re relieved that he’s gone, but a part of you wanted that ‘dream’ to continue.**

“No, I didn’t!”

***You deny that you wanted the ‘dream’ to continue, despite knowing you did.**

“N- Maybe…”

The door opens and Sans and Toriel enter, Toriel holding a bag.

“Good afternoon, Frisk.

Frisk, still very red, attempted to compose herself. “G-Good afternoon, Mrs Toriel.”

“Oh, just call me Toriel,” She said, smiling. She turned to Sans.

“alright then, i’ll leaf you two women to talk since i’m booked for the afternoon,” Sans said, turning to the door.

Frisk and Toriel tried to stop themselves from chuckling, Toriel out of habit.

“anyway, if you need anything, i’ll be in my room.” He left the room, closing the door behind him.

Toriel took her seat and silence filled the room for a short while.

“…So, how-”

“Have you told him?” Toriel asked.

“Told who what?” Frisk responded.

“Let me rephrase that… Have you confessed to Sans?”

Frisk pretended to cough a few times before replying “What?!”

“Hmm… Let me guess: You feel like he’s a handsome prince, er… King, and you’re a young little maiden who happened to meet him face-to-face, and you think you’re not worthy of being in a relationship with him, you’re just grateful you’re at least friends.”

“What? How did..? Where did you hear those stories from?” Frisk asked, surprised and curious.

“I’ve seen enough of them from my time reading bedtime stories to Chara and Asriel when they were younger.”

“But I thought most of the books here were-”

“‘Written by monsters’? Firstly, I do recall a few of those books being written by monsters before and after the war (I believe Sans has told you about the war). Secondly, things from the surface sometimes wash down here into the Junk pit and As- he used to get me some things from there after he returned them to a better condition.”

“…Sorry for assuming that then. May I ask why you and Asgore aren’t on good terms anymore? You’re married, aren’t you?”

“Yes, but… it’s complicated.” This topic seemed to bring Toriel’s mood down.

“I can understand why you wouldn’t want to… bury the hatchet, but at least talk about it with him, or else others may be affected by the consequences.”

Toriel went silent, all signs of being happy gone from her face.

“…uh …Hey! Did you know that- um…” Frisk desperately looked for a way to change the subject and get rid of the awkward silence in between them while Toriel just stood there.

Eventually, Toriel spoke. “…I guess… I’ll consider it.”

Frisk sighed with relief.

“Back to the original topic, when did you fall for him?” Toriel acted like the previous topic didn’t exist, and was back to her joyful mood.

“Wh- What?!”

“Come on, you can tell me,” Toriel urged.

“… I… um…” Frisk considered whether or not to tell her before blurting out “I may or may not have fallen for him the day of the proclamation.”

“That was the day after you first met me.”

“I- I- He was pretty funny, nice, caring-”

“Don’t tell me you have a thing for skeletons.”

“N-no!”

“Relax, I’m just _kid_ding with you.”

“Wait…” Frisk started to laugh. “Was that?”

“I goat more where that came from.” She took out her phone from her pocket.

Frisk continued to laugh before she noticed the phone. “…Is something wrong?”

“Nope. Anyway, has Sans given you a phone?”

“No.”

She brought out a phone from her bag. “It’s not that recent, but it will do.” She handed it to Frisk.

“T-thank you!”

“You’re welcome. I realized that Sans might not have given you a phone since the need for one never arose. My number is already there so you can call me anytime. Anyway, how are you feeling now?”

“I’m feeling much better now.”

“Has Sans been taking good care of you?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Let me know if he ever hurts you, okay?” Toriel’s smile went from warm and happy to scary and threatening with just one sentence, almost like a silent threat to Sans.

***You suddenly feel very worried for Sans**

“O-okay.”

***Suddenly, you hear the sound of someone landing on the floor upstairs. You hear the footsteps get closer to the stairs, and you see Sans holding a cup of coffee in his left hand and a book in the other.**

“heya. hope i’m not intruding on a private conversation. i just wanted to get a book to read, makes it easier for me to resist a-rest.”

Frisk giggled at the pun while Toriel faced Sans, her smile back to its warm, happy and welcoming form. This sudden change made Frisk more scared for Sans.

“No, you’re not intruding on anything private,” Toriel replied.

Frisk stared at Sans worryingly, but he either didn’t notice or didn’t care. He left normally through the door.

“I hope he hasn’t been too lazy to actually take care of you.” Toriel’s scary side quickly returned.

“N-no! He’s always been there to take care of me and comfort me!”

“Ok.” Toriel finally calmed.

“‘a-rest’? Sans seemed a bit tired.”

“Isn’t he always tired? He’s only ever fully awake at noon,” Toriel said.

“No, he’s awake for most of the day.”

“That’s because you’re here. Either way, what’s gone on today?”

“Well, after breakfast- oh, thanks for the breakfast.”

“You’re welcome”

“After breakfast, Sans showed me this library, and I spent most of my time today reading here before you came.”

“Which books?”

“‘Monster Basics’, ‘Humans: Everything We Know About Them Simplified Version’ and a book Sans showed me called um…” She picked up a book from the table. “‘Twilight’.”

“Understandable choices. It makes sense that you’d like to learn about the race you’re going to be living with.”

“Sans also taught me about souls and their traits.”

“Good.”

“Still can’t believe that skeletons can eat without organs.” Frisk muttered to herself.

“Can’t believe what?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“Frisk?”

“Yes?”

“Did you attempt to look through Sans’ ribcage?”

“Yes… Is there something wrong?”

Toriel laughed. “How do I put this..? Hmm… Imagine Sans was a human.”

Frisk paused and thought about how the situation would play out… “What, what?!” Frisk flushed red from embarrassment.

“Doing that is a bit of an intimate act.”

“What?! Why didn’t he say something?!” She tried to hide her face behind her hands

_Maybe he liked it, _Toriel thought. “I’m not sure.” She pulled out a cookie from a jar in her bag. “Here.”

She peeked at the cookie through her fingers before moving her hands to accept it. “T-thanks.”

*Click*

“What?!” A startled Frisk exclaimed.

“Heh, now I have a picture of you when you’re embarrassed.”

“N-no! Delete it!”

“Hmm… Nah.”

“Please!”

“Nope, I’m saving this for later.”

Frisk sighed in defeat.

“So, why don’t you confess now?” Toriel asked again.

“…”

“Are you scared of getting rejected?” _Both of you are so hopeless._ “Or do you still think you’re ‘not worthy’?”

Frisk looked away and remained silent.

“Alright then. I’m giving you till the end of next week to tell him yourself, since neither you won’t do it unless you’re pushed to do it.”

“R-really?! Please don’t do this!”

“That’s my final decision.”

“Please!”

“Want me to tell him myself?”

“N-no…”

“Then we’re done.”

Frisk went silent.

“Anything else you want to talk about?”

Frisk remained silent in deep thought.

“Alright, I guess-”

“Did you know anything about Justine?”

“How did-?”

“She was a close friend of mine, but she was dropped down here by the three people who fell down here yesterday.”

“What?!” For the first time, Frisk saw her use her magic. Fireballs appeared around her, burning intensely and circling her as her anger rose with, Frisk thought, murderous intent for them, and rightfully so. She eventually calmed on her own, though Frisk noticed that somehow, nothing burned.

Toriel sighed. “Has Sans told you about the six souls?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’m sorry about your friend’s death, but I didn’t know that much about her. You should ask Papyrus, he adopted her.”

“Oh… ok then.”

“Why don’t we go check on Sans? I believe this conversation has ended unless you have anything else to say.”

“No.”

She stood up. “Alright then.” She exited the library and opened the door to Sans’ room without knocking. Frisk looked through the door.

Sans was seated in the midst of lots of papers. He was sitting by his desk, his skull on the table, half-asleep, and didn’t notice when they entered. A pen sat in his bony hand, which was held by his arm above his head. The pen dropped from his hand, and the sound of the pen hitting the table knocked him awake.

“huh?! wha?!” He looked around, his eye lights settling on the empty coffee mug in front of him. He sighed, picking it up and turning to the door.

“oh. hey, sorry, didn’t notice you there.” He stood up, walking towards the door.

“Oh no”

“i’m fine, just a bit tired.”

_Just a bit?_, Frisk thought.

He walked past them, into the kitchen

“Why are there so many papers?”

“Oh, paperwork left unfinished for a while.”

“So much?”

“Wouldn’t be that much if Sans had completed them when he was supposed to. Anyway, I’ll take my leave. Bye.” Toriel walked towards the front door.

“Bye,” Frisk said, turning back to Sans’ room. _That explains why the bag was so big._

* * *

Sans walked into the room to find the papers he was working on gone. _Come to think of it, weren’t there more papers here?_ He looked around. The number of papers here seemed to be a lot less than the amount Toriel gave him. What? He left his room to start looking and immediately noticed the library door still open.

He entered the library and saw piles of papers neatly arranged in stacks on the tables. Frisk was holding an entire stack in her hands, walking towards a table. She turned to him.

“Oh, hey Sans. I just thought it would-” Frisk suddenly tripped. She closed her eyes as she fell, bracing for impact..? She hadn’t hit anything. She opened her eyes and saw a blue heart floating in front of her chest, and a blue aura surrounding her. She was frozen in place, and so were the papers she was holding.

“careful,” Sans said, walking towards her. He removed the pile of papers from her hands, placing them on a nearby table.

“How?” Frisk asked.

“you’ve read the section about blue magic, correct?” He walked back towards her, stopping right in front of her.

“Yes. But I’ve never seen blue magic in action before.” The heart reverted to its original red colour and Frisk was released from the force holding her in place, Sans catching her.

“well, now you have,” Sans said.

“Thank you.”

“i should be the one thanking you for… uh…”

“I wanted to help you arrange and complete these.”

“ok… wait, seriously?”

“Yes.”

“ok, then. guess i can’t stop ya there.” He sat down, taking a sip out of the coffee he had gotten for himself and continued to review and write.

Frisk continued to move the papers to the library then sorted them by topic alphabetically and then by relevance. Sans continued to write into the night, dozing off a few times before finally falling asleep. [Author’s notes: Guess the coffee didn’t save him.] Frisk was around halfway done when she noticed he had already fallen asleep (not too long after he actually did).

“He’s asleep. I guess he’s done enough for today,” She said, putting aside the papers she was arranging. She walked over to Sans and attempted to carry him. He wasn’t to easy to carry, but he was surprisingly lighter than she thought he would be (Though considering he’s a skeleton, heavier than she thinks he should be). _Maybe he just has big and dense bones._

She eventually managed to complete the task of putting him in bed properly and returned to the library.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before the edit, I wrote Undyne Ultra instead of Undyne Unmbra. Here, you see Undyne, but I just wanted to point that out.  
I guess the beans are yet to spill, we can only wait to see what the future holds for our beloved couple.


	6. Has The Cat Been Let Outta the Bag?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cats and bags. Not gonna explain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you know a moment is 90 seconds or 1 and a half minutes?

  
  


Sans awoke, surprised to be in his bed. He remembered being in the library, completing paperwork with Frisk… He started to question why he was surprised anymore, obviously Frisk moved him here when he was asleep.

He left the room to get some coffee before going to check on Frisk. Surprisingly, she wasn’t in her room. He checked the library, and (unsurprisingly, this time) saw Frisk asleep at one of the desks, the papers she was arranging still in her hands.

He sighed and dropped the half-empty mug of coffee on the desk, attempting to remove the papers from her hand without tearing them, which was a bit difficult due to her strong grip on them. He then carried her in his arms and noticed, while he left the library, that Frisk seemed to be in a half-asleep state. She looked around, her eyes barely opening before snapping shut again. Then she raised her head up to his chest and wrapped her arms around his torso, Sans thinking she just didn’t want to fall off. She muttered something about a heart and a beat, but Sans didn’t hear her.

He entered her room and tried to lay her in her bed, but her grip on him was too strong for him to break out of.

“Ugh… I don’t wanna leave… sounds so peaceful here.” Frisk muttered.

Sans finally understood what she was doing, listening to his heart (soul) beat, and it made him blush a bit.

Sans sighed. “Frisk, come on.”

Frisk stayed silent.

Sans thought silently for a moment before deciding on what to do so Frisk would be able to get proper rest.

**…**

Sans also couldn’t believe he was doing this, but it was the only way for Frisk to be able to sleep comfortably… _was it?_ Sans was lying on Frisk’s bed, Frisk laid on him with her head on his ribcage, where his soul was. Sans sighed as his left eye flashed again, the blue hue a bit more pronounced than before while the red hue seemed to be fading a little. A small pile of papers appeared on the bedside drawer, while his half-empty mug floated around him. A paper and a pen floated in front of him, the pen moving around and writing.

After around half an hour of doing this with around half the small pile, he grew bored and decided to stop and take a nap.

_What the heck am I doing? I should have found another way for Frisk to rest comfortably. Though…_

“i wonder if this is the closest i’ll ever be to her…”

_Don’t indulge yourself anymore._

He sighed. “you shouldn’t do this. she shouldn’t have to be stuck down here. she should be growing up in a nice city with friends and family. maybe even… someone she fell in love with. they could be dating… even… well, it… n o t y o u…” He said to himself. “though… maybe one more wouldn’t hurt”

Sans tilted his head towards Frisk’s and pressed his teeth against her forehead, lingering a bit longer than he thought he should have.

Frisk listened intently to the peaceful and comforting sound she could hear. She didn’t feel like leaving. She could feel different things, emotions: comfort, care, happiness, concern, love… all directed towards her. It reminded her of Sans. She didn’t want this to end. She didn’t want to let go.

Then she felt something bony press against her forehead. Her half-asleep mind could distinguish it as teeth, and subconsciously knowing it’s Sans, but couldn’t tell it was probably the skeletal form of a kiss… Maybe it could. Either way, she enjoyed it. So when she felt the teeth leave her forehead, her sleepy form immediately followed.

* * *

Sans excused Frisk moving around as her trying to make herself comfortable, and didn’t bother moving. He quickly fell asleep due to his amazing skill of being able to do so.

“Hehehehe” The creepy laughter echoed throughout the throne room, the source at the entrance. There he was, standing on wilting or already wilted flowers. A human stood at the entrance, a creepy smile plastered on her face and a flower with its vines wrapped around their shoulder. The flower didn’t seem to like what was going on but didn’t resist nonetheless. The human held a knife, the dust of the monsters they killed coating it. It was clear he was their next and probably last target. After all, there is no one left. He could remember all of this. This recurring nightmare.

They moved towards him. Things went from one to a thousand the moment he saw their, rather her face. It was Frisk, the clothes, size, and face. The only thing different would be her smile. Not wanting to fight, he backed away. However, Frisk initiated a soul fight before he could escape.

Frisk charged at him knife first, but Sans dodged. There were perks to being the only monster that could do that in a soul fight. He raised his hand to the wall farthest away from him. A red heart appeared in front her and instantly turned blue as she flew in the direction of the wall. In the past he may have tried to hurt this human, but now? He couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Sans’ turn quickly ended as Frisk dashed at him the moment she was released, missing again.

And then the sound of breaking ribs was all he could hear.

“h- how?”

In a soul battle, humans are only able to attack once per turn… _so, how did she attack again?_ There, however, was something else wrong. There was someone in front of him… another Frisk, who had taken all the damage for him. She had taken the maximum amount of damage any monster (who had more HP than humans and thus were harder to kill if they actually wanted to fight) had ever taken before. No doubt they were LV 20. It also didn’t help that the Frisk in front of him was only LV 1 with 20HP.

The Frisk with the knife faded away with a creepy smile on their face… their face, it seemed different… It reminded him of Mettacrit whenever they tried to possess something. The other Frisk, the Frisk he knew, collapsed into his arms, bleeding profusely from the slash wound across her chest, the mostly red turtleneck sweater getting soaked in an even deeper blood red.

“f- frisk! don’t worry, i- i’ll heal you! you- you’re not gonna die here!” He held one hand over her face as it began to glow a blueish-green.

“It… It’s alright Sans.”

“no it’s not! you’re on the verge of death and you think this is ok?! ”

“Sans… I’m sorry but I think it’s too late for me.”

“n-no, i refuse to accept that that is true.”

“At least I know you’re okay…” Frisk went silent.

“frisk?!” Her soul appeared, floating over her now still, quiet body.

“frisk!!!” It floated away, slowly breaking into pieces.

Sans started to cry as he knelt down, her body still in his hands. He stared at the breaking heart as the pieces broke off one by one, blown away by the wind like autumn leaves.

** _You need to let go._ **

* * *

Frisk had finally managed to fall into a complete state of sleep, albeit not dreamless, rather, not devoid of nightmares.

Frisk was at the entrance to a cave in Mt. Ebbot. However, this was not just any cave, but the cave with the hole through which Justine fell in. Speaking of Justine…

Three young men stood by the edge of the hole, carrying the unconscious body of Justine in their hands. They dropped her down the hole and proceeded to leave. Frisk, not wanting to be seen, knowing she would most certainly die if she was, stood up and attempted to run.

She heard a crack beneath her and suddenly, a portion of the ground underneath her shattered. She managed to grab on to an edge of the hole, but more cracks started to appear.

“frisk!”

And then she looked up. Sans was there, his hand stretched towards her.

“grab onto my hand!”

She quickly grabbed it, and he attempted to pull her up… but then, the ground underneath him broke away.

A red heart appeared above her chest as she fell, instantly turning blue. Sans turned to face the opening and stretched his left hand towards it. Frisk was thrown back up, out through the opening, landing a short distance away from it.

“Sans!”

She crawled back through the hole and saw Sans falling into the endless abyss below. The ground had stopped breaking away, the three boys already gone.

“N-no… Sans…” She lay there, crying as she watched Sans fall until she could see him no more.

** _But I don’t want to let go._ **

* * *

Sans woke up first, sweat falling off his face in torrents. The first thing is eyes feel on was Frisk.

“frisk… it was just a nightmare, she’s alright.” He continued to ponder on what he saw, particularly the face of the Frisk with the knife before they disappeared. He sat up a bit moving Frisk with him so she could remain comfortable, and that was when he noticed her scared expression and the sweat pouring down her face.

“oh… she’s probably having a nightmare too.” He brought Frisk up of eye level and embraced her, kissing her on her forehead, somehow hoping that would work.

* * *

Frisk stared into the endless abyss, her tears following Sans down the hole. A voice, without a definite source, started to tell her something.

***Darling, wake up…**

She stood up. The ground cracked underneath her.

***Wake up… Please…**

She tried to run, but she couldn’t move. Her eyes stayed focused on Sans, or where he was in the hole, as grief overwhelmed her.

***It’s just a bad dream, you need to wake up.**

The ground cracked more, almost to the point of breaking.

***Come on, Frisk, wake up.**

The ground shattered.

***Wake up!**

Then everything went black.

* * *

Frisk’s eyes quickly opened and closed a few times, taking in her surroundings and trying to calm down. She then immediately jumped away from Sans, clearly embarrassed. She nearly fell off the bed in her bid to get away from Sans, but he caught her quickly.

_I clearly didn’t think this through._

“Wh- what’s going on?!”

“c- calm down, there’s a perfectly good explanation for this. y- you held onto me in your sleep, and y- your grip was surprisingly strong!” He blurted out, also embarrassed.

“…O- oh!” _Oh God, why did I do such embarrassing things in my sleep?!_ “I- I’m sorry if I caused you any t- trouble!”

“n- no, it’s alright.” Silence filled the room as both of them searched for something to say, some way to escape from this awkward situation.

“uh, i heard from pap that you and chara were supposed to meet up today,” Sans said, getting off Frisk’s bed.

“Y-yes,” Frisk replied, moving into a more comfortable sitting position.

“i took the liberty of picking out these clothes for you yesterday. they’re the ones you were wearing when you first fell down here.” A pair of clothes floated off the bedside dresser towards Frisk, a red and black striped turtleneck sweater and a pair of shorts.

“Oh, thank you.”

“it was nothing.” He said, the clothes landing on Frisk’s bed beside her. He walked quickly over to the door. “i’ll leave you to get ready while i make breakfast.” With that, he left the room.

Frisk sighed, turning to the <strike>elephant</strike> ghost in the room. _Great, now Sans has joined the list of people my nightmares want dead. _“What was that?”

***You mean the fact that he-?**

“I was asleep, yet I could hear your voice.”

***Oh. I can really only interact with you, from what I’ve seen, but it seems I may be able to… how do I put this…**

“Did he… right when I woke up… did he kiss me?”

***What? Oh, yeah, he did, right when you woke up, on your forehead.**

“Why didn’t he wake me up?!”

***Maybe because you hadn’t slept well.**

“Does he-?”

***You should save that question for him.**

“Oh, ok. I guess I better get ready then. Do you… mind?”

***Oh, I’ll give you your privacy. **

The ghost turned away.

***By the way, did you know he had a nightmare too?**

“Oh, I didn’t know,” Frisk said, pulling off her shirt.

***It was probably something about seeing you die.**

“…O- oh.”

* * *

No sooner had Sans finished making breakfast when Frisk arrived at the dining table. He walked out of the kitchen and dropped two plates of breakfast on the table as Frisk walked into the room.

“just in time. breakfast’s ready.”

“Oh, it smells delicious,” Frisk replied. _Should I ask him now? Maybe I should wait for a bit._

“well, we’ll see how it tastes.”

Most of the breakfast was silent with Sans trying to avoid eye contact with Frisk for as long as possible, his cheekbones dusted with the faintest hue of red. Even when Frisk asked for something, he never looked her straight in the eyes.

***Behold how a human was able to reduce the mighty King Sans to a blushing mess without even doing much.**

_If you can read my thoughts, then your comments aren’t helping._

***Harsh, I was just trying to make a joke out of this situation. I guess I was in the red.**

Frisk ignored the ghost’s_ ghastly _pun. Soon, Frisk had finished her breakfast and stood up.

“you can leave the plate if you want, i’ll take care of it.” Sans said.

“Ok,” Frisk said, moving towards Sans.

“need something?”

“Well, I do have questions.”

“alright, what do you want to ask?” He asked, still not looking directly at Frisk.

“Sans…” Frisk started. “um… So, have I been doing a good job with the papers?”

Sans looked at her, unamused that she was chickening out on trying to ask him whatever it was that she wanted to ask. “yes, but that wasn’t the question you wanted to ask.”

“…How are thing with you and Papyrus going?”

“frisk,” Sans said, slightly annoyed.

Frisk paused for a moment before finally spilling the beans. [Here you go, Vene] “…Do you like me?!” She blurted out.

This question startled Sans a bit, but he quickly recovered, answering, “yeah.”

Frisk, thinking that he probably didn’t understand what she was trying to ask, asked, “I mean… what was the word… r-rom…”

“ro...?”

“Romantically.”

“…” Sans’s expression went blank, his cheekbones dusted with red. He didn’t move an inch.

“Sans?!” She said, surprised

Sans didn’t respond for a few seconds before coming back to reality. _Stupid, stupid, stupid. You blew it. Why couldn’t you just stop?! Now she probably dislikes you and wants to go stay somewhere else, not spend some time with some creep like you!_

“Sans?!” Frisk was starting to get worried.

“uh…” _There’s no point in hiding it now._ “y… y- yes.”

Sans’s reply filled Frisk with sudden relief and excitement, and in an attempt to hug Sans, caused both of them to fall onto the floor, Frisk on top of Sans.

“S- sorry!”

“it’s alright,” Sans said, a bit worried. “you… do you-?”

“Of course I do!”

“even though i’ve done some horrible things in the past, was selfish, st-”

“Well, you are willing to change. Plus, you’re funny and caring.”

“you’re… you’re not gonna listen to more of me insulting myself, are you?”

“Nope. No more looking at the past. You’ve changed, and you’re improving. Everyone has something to improve on,” Frisk said, smiling.

Sans looked at Frisk, stunned by her smile. “alright then, (you beautiful) angel.”

“What?!” Frisk grew surprised at Sans’s unconscious attempt at a flirt.

“oh, sorry about that,” He said, moving his hand through Frisk’s hair. “you know, i’m glad i got to meet you.”

“I’m glad too. Thanks to you, I’m still alive.”

“no, you managed to survive perfectly on your own.”

“No. When I came here, I was being chased by those three. If they had found me, I probably wouldn’t have survived whatever they wanted to do to me. Maybe throw me down like they did Justine. Or throw me off the mountain, that would be sure-”

“you’d have to thank the barrier for that, and please stop imagining what they could have done to you. they can’t hurt you now.”

“Well, you still protected me. When they jumped down here and one tried to shoot me, you did protect me.”

“guess i can’t argue with that.” Sans’s phone floated out of his pocket. He looked at it before saying, “i’d hate to ruin the moment, but it is getting pretty close to noon.”

“Oh,” Frisk said, slightly disappointed.

“don’t worry about it,” Sans said. “you don’t have to do anything tomorrow and toriel isn’t coming over.”

“Alright,” Frisk said, standing up.

Sans got up and said, “let’s go,” holding out his hand towards Frisk.

She put her hand in his, and the next moment she found herself in a snowy town, Asriel’s home right in front of her. And then she realized, while she was wearing a turtle-neck sweater, her legs were bare since she was wearing only shorts.

“My legs feel cold.”

“oh, i didn’t think that far. do you want to go back and-”

“No, it’s alright. I can manage.”

“…alright then, if you say so. chara should be here any moment, so i’ll leave you two girls to do, well whatever you’d like.” Sans turned away from Frisk.

“Wait.”

“huh?” Sans turned back.

Frisk placed a quick, light kiss on his cheekbone. “Bye.”

“yeah,” Sans said, blushing. “see ya.” He disappeared into thin air.

“Hey, um… I don’t believe you’ve told me your name.”

Frisk turned back to see Asriel walking towards her, holding a cat in his arms.

“Oh, hello Asriel. I’m Frisk.”

“It’s nice to meet you too. Chara should be here any moment, but don’t be surprised if she comes late. She doesn’t have a habit of being punctual unless it’s official Judge duties.”

“Ok. What’s its name?” Frisk said, looking at the cat that Asriel was petting.

“Oh. It’s uh…”

“_Cat_astrophe,” A voice from behind them said.

“Absolutely not!” Asriel said, turning back to meet Chara.

“Why?” Chara replied.

“That name is terrible!”

“Says the one terrible at naming things.”

“W- well, the name itself is an insult and a pun. If I named it that, I would never stop hearing cat puns!”

“I don’t _cat_ch your drift. It’s _purr_fect.”

“Hmph! (That was horrible.) Fine, I’ll leave you two for now! I’ll talk to the human when you’re not here to annoy me with your puns. Besides, I’ve got a town to patrol.” Asriel started to walk away.

“Well, I _goat_ more where that came from.”

Asriel continued to walk away, ignoring Chara’s last pun.

“Asriel’s not a fan of puns?”

“He’s not. He doesn’t like ‘em because I apparently make too much.”

“I can understand.”

“Anyway, let’s go to Grillby’s. He sells some nice chocolate there.”

“Do you only care about chocolate?”

“No, I care about puns and Asriel too, along with Paps.”

“I guess so. Is this it?” They stopped in front of a bar with ‘Grillby’s’ painted onto it.

“And what does the paint say?”

“I just wanted to be sure.”

“Alright then, let’s go in.”

* * *

Sans teleported into the living room very happy. He quickly cleared the dining table of the plates that had been left there then answered the doorbell, all while happily humming to himself.

Papyrus stood at the other side of the door. “Heya. I told Tori not to… You seem really happy today. What did I miss?”

“oh… it’s nothing much.” Sans’ cheeks were now a faint hue of red thinking about it.

“Does it have to do with Frisk?” Papyrus asked, pulling out his phone and stepping into the corridor.

“yes.”

“Sans, have you confessed?”

“well, sorta… um… i wasn’t the one that confessed.”

Papyrus sighed in disappointment. He stared at his phone intensely for a short while before turning to Sans. “Sans, did you and Frisk… do anything suggestive of your… relationship outside? In the open?”

“i mean… she did kiss me on the cheekbone. why do you ask?”

“Sans, I don’t mean any disrespect or anything, but… you do realize, if monsters notice, then Frisk’s life may be endangered. Things like being kidnapped and held for ransom or straight up being killed, them thinking she caused you to change, which wouldn’t be wrong, but you understand what I’m getting at, right?”

“oh… i understand.”

Papyrus sighed. “Just be careful, alright? I don’t want you or Frisk in harm’s way.”

“okay.”

“Anyway, Tori’s informed me of the task given back to you. Mind telling me how that went?”

“lots of coffee is gone.”

“And?” Papyrus walked towards Sans’ room.

“frisk’s been helping me.”

“Not surprising, but… I hope you haven’t overworked her.” The last part of Papyrus’ sentence sounded more like a threat. He opened the door to Sans’ room. “There aren’t any papers here. Toriel told me your room was a mess with papers on top.”

“it was, but frisk helped me move the papers to the library.”

“Of course she did.”

“hey, it wasn’t my idea.”

“Okay then.” Papyrus opened the library’s door and stepped in. “You know, it’s kinda overwhelming how we managed to build a library made up of the books we’ve read and the books we wanted to read. Especially you, you bookworm.”

“heh, that’s true,” Sans said, following Papyrus in.

“Anyway, I came to help alleviate the stress caused by your duties (after all, I am the Prince), and to catch up on what’s happened these years I’ve been away.”

“oh, there isn’t much that happened while you were away,” Sans said, walking over to the tables with stacks of papers on them. “just a slothful king who didn’t care about anything anymore allowing his kingdom to slowly rot.”

“What’s with the love for self-depreciation?”

“it’s the truth. nothing _humerus_ here.” Sans took a seat at the tables, taking a few papers from the top of the stack.

“Ugh.” He walked over to a stack of papers, looking through them. “Are you the one who arranged these?”

“no, that was frisk.”

“Alphabetical order, then relevance. This is a lot of work done.” He looked through the stacks. “She’s halfway done. Sans-”

“heyheyheyhey. calm down, paps.”

“And what were you doing while she was busy?”

“taking care of the already arranged ones.”

“I… I guess it would be wrong of me to get angry with you since you did nothing wrong.”

“you know, you’ve gotten easily attached to every human that fell down here. i can tell from the descriptions of all the humans that fell after chara up till frisk given to me. both of them aren’t exceptions either.”

“Well, they were innocent.”

“**most.**” Sans’ eye lights vanished, leaving the harsh dark void that was his eye sockets.

“I prefer not to talk about her.”

“we both do. i’ve only mentioned her to frisk once.”

“Did you-”

“no.”

“Well, we can take care of that another day. I didn’t come all the way here just so we could be all melancholic.”

“you’re right.” His eye lights returned. “want a drink?”

“Sure, why not?”

* * *

Frisk’s hangout with Chara was, well… something to say the least. Chara kept ordering chocolate bars while Frisk looked around, mostly interested in the fact that a bar was selling chocolate bars.

That was probably due to Chara, but still.

“So… you come here often?” Frisk asked awkwardly.

Chara chuckled at Frisk attempt at starting a conversation. “Yeah.”

Frisk narrowed her eyes at Chara. “It’s because of you they sell chocolate bars here, isn’t it? This is a bar after all.”

“And what if it is.”

“Didn’t know you were that serious about chocolate. Well, I did spend a lot of Sans’ money buying lots of chocolate for you.”

The barkeeper raised an eye at the mention of the name of the king, but he didn’t question it. This human was friends with the Judge, so matters about the king would obviously pop up eventually.

“You act like chocolate isn’t the best edible thing to have ever existed.”

“I… I’m not going to bother disagreeing with you.”

“So you agree.”

“Never said I did.”

Just then, the Canine Unit of the Royal Guard walked the bar. They sat on the table (which was labelled K-9) with Chara, as usual, who introduced Frisk to them. They were friendly with Frisk, to her surprise, and soon they were playing a friendly, deadly, game of Poker, with Chara and Doggo as the main champions and Frisk trailing closely behind.

After a bit of convincing from Dogamy and Chara, Frisk tried out one of Grillby’s, the bar owner, drinks. However, the drink she took kept her wanting more, due to its addictive taste. Eventually, a drunken Frisk was somehow beating everyone at the table in the game of Poker which continued into the night.

Then the skeleton walked into the bar. All eyes turned to him, and the bar went silent. Grillby, however, continued to clean dishes at the counter. He walked over to the table with the Canine Unit and all but one of them seemed scared, Doggo seeming irritated.

Frisk turned towards the skeleton. “Sansy~!” She said, standing up.

Everyone froze, looking at Frisk as she walked over to Sans with a concerned expression. It was no secret that sometime in the past, someone in power got dusted for continually calling him ‘Sansy’, and since then, no one ever dared to call him that. Till now.

“Calm down,” Chara said to the Canine Unit. “He’ll probably warn her.”

“let’s go. chara, i hope nothing happened to her here, or paps will end me,” Sans said.

“Oh, you’re okay,” Chara replied. “She’s just a bit drunk.”

“ok then.” And with that, he and Frisk disappeared into thin air.

* * *

And they appeared at the door to Frisk’s bedroom. Sans opened the door, guiding Frisk onto her bed. Flicking the light switch into its ‘off’ position, he left the room, closing the door behind him and going to sleep.

However, Frisk didn’t go to sleep. As she stayed awake, still a bit drunk, her thoughts wandered back to the surface, to when she saw Justine fall, and to when she was chased up the mountain. Fear, the same feeling she felt during those events, resurfaced in her mind, and she got out of her bed, as being in the dark, alone, did not help things.

Frisk left the room, stumbling a bit as she tried to find Sans’ room. Eventually, she did and entered the room to see him soundly asleep on the bed. Frisk laid on the bed beside him, now less cared. Her eyes slowly started to close, that is until she heard it.

Sans’ soul.

And just like last time, she could hear it. Feel its presence even. It was comforting, at least to her. It seemed to attract her, to try to draw her closer. So, against her better judgement (which may have existed if she wasn’t drunk), she moved closer to Sans’ chest. Except, unlike last time, she felt content with laying her head on his ribcage.

Sans, being the person he was, woke up due to the feeling that someone else was in the room. He opened his eye sockets slowly, as the presence didn’t seem threatening at all. He looked down at his chest and noticed Frisk laying on his chest.

“f- frisk..? wh- what are you doing?”

“…”

“i know you’re awake.”

“…No, you don’t.”

“ok then, who am i talking to now?”

“…I feel scared.”

“why?”

“I- I’m not sure… It’s just…”

“don’t overthink it. you should rest.”

“I… remembered when I was chased onto this mountain. If- if they caught me… they might not have… thrown me into the mountain… I would’ve-”

“stop.” Sans wrapped Frisk in a protective embrace. “don’t think about it. you’re here now. you’re safe with me. i won’t let **anything** happen to you.”

“Sans…”

“you’re the kindest, sweetest, most caring person i’ve ever met. don’t let these thoughts bother you. if they ever do, tell me. if anyone hurts you, tell me, okay?”

“…Okay.”

“if you ever need someone to confide in, i’m here. i’ll always be here. if you need anything, i’m here. and if there’s one thing you should always remember, it’s the indisputable fact i love you. i’ll always be here for you, okay?”

“Th- thank you, Sans.”

“don’t thank me. i should be thanking you. you’re the one who has shown me the kindness i didn’t deserve. you’re the one who helped me change. thank _you_, frisk.”

“But-”

“shh… rest. i’m here. nothing can hurt you.”

And with a kiss to the forehead from Sans, Frisk was dragged into the sweet, refreshing prison referred to as sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edits below  
Forgot to link the prologue, so here: [Life In A Hellish City.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23069866)  
Pretty important in order to understand somethings that may happen in later chapters that I may be too lazy to explain.  
Also, exams are starting. I'm gonna suffer.  
The last thing, I've started writing an original story, so be sure to check that out!  
[Sonzai](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22912735)  
<strike>We're on 665 hits</strike>  
<strike>Didn't edit this when I saw it, but we did get to 666 hits. I can feel my sins crawling up my back already.</strike>
> 
> Your comments are always welcome. <strike>Seriously, please comment something</strike> Thanks for taking your time to read this.


	7. Secrets and Rumors - Chapter Update and Notice

So, the chapter's been almost done for quite a while, however, all the progress has been lost. I got a new laptop a few days ago and was planning to move my files over to this new one. However, before I could move them, the laptop completely stopped working and could no longer load the OS. I had a few works on there that I was planning to post, including this chapter. There could possibly be a way to recover the files so I'll see if I can do anything about it.

Rewriting the chapter wouldn't be so bad, as I remember what goes on and it would mean it's better quality, but it would take more time to post.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TL;DR, the chapter needs to be rewritten and will take a bit more time to come out
> 
> I'll delete this chapter when I'm done with rewriting it.


End file.
